How exciting it was to see so many of you at the Winter Homeschool Conference last weekend! My reward is seeing how quickly you learned how to use the System.

We met a teenager who had had trouble learning how to read, and by just watching the demonstration, could decode all long and short-vowel words quickly by “Finding the 1st vowel and giving it the CODE.”

He explained his dyslexia had left him with an inability to read. He couldn’t explain what concepts he had previously learned or how he had learned them. After 10 minutes reviewing the Charts with him, he could evaluate his background and explain what he didn’t know.

His mom noticed how he could organize the concepts floating around in his brain by putting them in “Chart Order” so he could always find them. They decided the best way to reinforce his foundation was to have him teach a younger sibling. They would both be improving at the same time.

He was thrilled to recognize that by just knowing the CODE, he could really help his sibling, and himself. He left with a smile on his face and confidence he had never had before. He’ll be ready for the CLUES soon, but meanwhile he’ll be successful really helping his sibling without being threatened himself.

His mom looked even more thrilled!

Hanson Reading Phonics Chart System is simple to understand:

Master each Chart and apply it.

Chart 1-Names of the Letters

The application of Chart 1 is learning to print Uppercase Letters on one line with all the letters the same height and all sitting on the bottom line.

Chart 2-Sounds of the Consonants

The application of Chart 2 is learning to print Lowercase Letters on one line with the “tall” letters the same height and all the “short” letters the same height.

The Vowels can be decoded by applying the CODE to the 1st vowel in each syllable from Chart 3 through Chart 5. How easy is that!

Chart 3-The Vowels and the CODE

The CODE is a Song that decodes long and short vowel words and takes the place of the typical 3 reading rules.

Students find the 1st vowel and “Give it the CODE.”

The application of Chart 3 is learning how to read:

Long-vowel words

Short-vowel words

Learning how to divide words into syllables

Chart 4: Sounds of the Consonant Digraphs, “Married Consonants”

The application of Chart 4 is to learn how to read long & short vowel words with “married consonants”

Chart 5: Sounds of Beginning Consonant Blends

The application of Chart 5 is to learn how to read long & short-vowel words with “Beginning Consonant Blends” .

Learning how to divide words with Open and Closed Syllables

Chart 6: This is the first of the CLUE Charts (6,7,8,9).

Hanson CLUES are vowels “hiding with other letters, CLUE CLUMPS, found on the CLUE Charts in black circles.

The CODE will not work on the CLUES, but all students need to do to identify a CLUE is to learn what letters the vowels hide with. It is a fun detective exercise in which a limited number of new CLUES are learned on each CLUE Chart.

Students still find the 1st vowel FIRST, but now they hesitate a second to see if a letter or letters are “hiding after” that 1st vowel.

(In the nomenclature of the reading world these sounds have no names students recognize. They are often vowel digraphs or dipthongs, but students don’t use those names, so “finding a CLUE is now simple and clear.)

Deciphering the vowel sounds is the only hard part of reading. Consonants are quite constant. “B” makes the same sound almost always. The vowels make many sounds depending on where they are in a word and what letters they are next to. By learning what letters the vowels hide with, students also learn that sound unit for spelling too.

Chart 7 adds more CLUES

Chart 8 adds more CLUES, and students learn that “c” and “g” change their sounds when followed by “e” “i” or “y”.

Chart 9 adds more CLUES and students learn some varying sounds of previous CLUES and a few other consonants that change their sounds.

All students learn a prompt for each Chart so they can be “teachers” reinforcing the concepts they have learned.

With each Chart, practice material is abundant for practice, culminating in the Phonics CODE Books and the Phonics CLUE Books. Although students are taught how to read and spell “Unfair” words in Hanson Memory Association Patterns, those words are seldom encountered in Hanson Reading Phonics Chart System reading materials so students can always be successful applying the CODE or a CLUE or an Open Syllable sound to the first vowel.

The whole system can be summed up:

Find the 1st vowel and give it the CODE or a CLUE

or is it an Open Syllable just for you.

There isn’t an easier way to learn how to read especially since the accompanying Phonics CODE Books only have the “unfair” words: a, the, to, of & I. The Phonics CLUE Books have only a few more. Students are rewarded for applying the concepts they are taught in the System without the discouragement of meeting words that defy what they have been taught.

Hanson Reading, the Phonics Chart System is English made logical.

Even children whose visual memory hasn’t matured yet can read with this System.

It is my pleasure to help you learn how easy it is to learn how to read.

Recently, during the demonstration of our Hanson Reading, Phonics Chart System at the Winter Homeschool Conference, I asked the kindergartner, “What sound does the “j” make, and she correctly responded with “juh-jellybean.”

That response was certainly correct, but an attendee asked me why on CHART 2, the Chart of CONSONANT SOUNDS, I didn’t have pictures like the ones in alphabet books.

Answer:

Alphabet books are great, but when children are at the stage where they are beginning to learn how to read, I take the information they know and put it into a filing system, the Phonics Chart System for efficient learning.

There is an important reason I do not use an illustration for each consonant sound on Chart 2.

When children are looking at a consonant, they are looking at a font, and they are trying to determine what sound it makes. They don’t always have an illustration with that font, but they always have the font. Because fonts vary, I have my own font. I have found that by helping children learn HOW to look at that font, the font becomes the picture, an Imaginary Picture. It is always the same, and it’s almost always the same in any book or printed material.

For each consonant on Chart 2, Hanson Reading has an Imaginary Picture and a short story to help develop imagination to be helpful in determining the consonant sound. Children have great imaginations, better than any actual picture, and they seem to be able to remember pictures better than letters.

There are many benefits learning to imagine each font as a picture, an Imaginary Picture.

BENEFITS:

1-Learning the SOUND the consonant makes

2-Learning to develop a MENTAL IMAGE of the consonant

3-Learning the STROKE ORDER for forming the consonant

4-Establishing and reinforcing DIRECTION: left-to-right order

I have used these Imaginary Pictures for years, and have found that I can teach a lesson on Consonant Sounds one time, and almost all the children will know the consonants sounds, but it takes me longer to get them to be able to say them quickly, :25 seconds for preschool, :20 seconds for kindergarten and :15 seconds for 1st grade and beyond.

Parents are always looking for books that their children can read. When children are at the very beginning stages of learning how to read, Phonics CODE Books, Read and See are “fair” for children who only know how to read long and short vowel words because all the words are as indicated:

Long-Vowel Words

Short-Vowel Words

Long and Short-Vowel Words

and

Long and Short-Vowel Words with Two Syllables

Other books may have big type and pretty pictures, but too many words are exceptions to the skills of decoding long and short vowel words, and they are frustrating for children and parents trying to help their children develop good reading skills.

The super bonus is:

The words in these books can be decoded by

singing the CODE Song from the Hanson Reading Phonics Chart System Chart 3 Audio.

The new, improved and expanded Phonics CODE Books Read and See Books are now available.

They are popular for several reasons:

1) Phonics Skill Assessment

In the back-inside cover of each book is a condensed representation of the HANSON Reading Phonics Charts, so teachers and parents can quickly evaluate their student’s phonics skills and choose the appropriate set of books for successful reading and skill building. The skill assessment is quite unique in beginning readers. Parents particularly appreciate the chart structure of phonics skills because most parents are willing to help their child, but don’t know what to do. This clear phonics structure in the back of each book gives parents the tools to help their child learn and to choose decodable books at their child’s phonics-chart level for a successful reading experience.

2) Quick Comprehension Check:

Not only are these books decodable, they are also the only books that provide immediate comprehension checks without writing. The READ and SEE format of the books is unique. The layout is designed with only the text on the front page (no picture). On the back page, the text is repeated along with the illustration. Thus, even if beginning readers’ writing expression lags behind their reading, parents and teachers can still assess their understanding as they go. No writing—but still an instant comprehension check!

3) Visualization:

The format reinforces the habit for beginning readers of “making a movie in their minds” from the text. In this manner, they are encouraged to form a picture of the setting, characters and action before that mental picture can be influenced by the illustrator’s interpretation.

4) Fluency Practice:

Re-reading the text on the second page builds fluency and provides an additional opportunity to read with expression.

5) Fair Decoding Practice:

This format with only text on the first page helps students to focus on the letters and use their decoding skills, rather than guess from pictures and context.

6) Built-in Reward System:

Students love the reward of seeing the illustration after they have read the READ page. Similarly, after they have read the entire book, they get to look at the final (END) page to discover the culminating picture.

7) Student’s First Choice:

At the beginning stages of learning how to read, children quickly thumb through books to do their assessment. Their goal is to finish a book quickly, and they evaluate their achievement by the number of books they have read. The volume and size of text, number of pages and pictures are a large factor in how children choose books. Phonics CODE Books Read and See Books are students 1st choice – a winner in all categories.

Deciphering the vowel sound in words is the biggest challenge for beginning readers.

There are commonly accepted rules that are wordy and don’t always work. These common phrases are not recommended for consistent decoding of words:

1. Two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking, it makes its long sound.

2. The vowel in a consonant, vowel, consonant word males its short sound.

3. The bossy final-e on the end of a word is silent, but it makes the 1st vowel long.

The excessive wording and interpretation of the common rules are much more difficult than usingthe Hanson Decoding Dialog called the CODE: “A with a vowel after says A”

The common phrases listed above don’t give any direction after memorizing those phrases. Hanson Reading is based on a building system, after you know the CODE, apply and read. In Chart 6 CLUES appear and the student either applies the CODE to a word or applies the CLUES.

All reading systems benefit from the text focus of long and short vowels. However, if students are taught the Hanson Decoding Dialog called the “CODE”, (which appears in the back inside cover of each book) and is applied to the 1st vowel in a syllable, the sound of the vowel is instantly supplied to the student and produces immediate success.

After learning to decode long and short vowels and open syllables in Series I. The success of HANSON Reading Phonics Chart System books continues in Series II. Here, new vowel sounds are introduced that are not long or short. At this stage the vowel sounds are determined by applying the CODE, CLUE or an open syllable sound 1st vowel.

HANSON Reading’s description of CLUE: A Vowel or a vowel that “hides with other letters” and does not obey the CODE.

These CLUES are presented and learned a few at a time (Charts 6-9) with the fun of continuing a vowel hunt and deciphering the vowel sound first.

Beginning at the Chart 6 Level of reading, after the 1st vowel is found, students pause and evaluate the letters directly after the 1st vowel to see if the 1st vowel “hides with” that letter/s and becomes a CLUE. For example: all the vowels “hide with” the letter “r” and change their sounds, so they won’t obey the CODE, as in “her”, “first”, “curl”. “Ur” is the CLUE in the word, curl. Recognizing that CLUE unit of sound helps students decode quickly.

CLUES are mastered, and added to the previous CODE skill sets and are an essential part of the progression of the HANSON Reading Phonics Chart System, which builds upon itself until students have mastered the basics of our English language. In the process, students also lay a foundation for spelling, penmanship, grammar, punctuation and comprehension.

The Phonics CODE Books Read and See Books are the beginning of a confidence in reading and excitement about learning that will build with each book!